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(LONDON) — Russian drones and missiles targeted Kyiv in a major attack on Sunday night, Ukrainian officials said on Monday morning, killing several people in the capital and setting a fire at a historic cathedral and UNESCO world heritage site.

At least five people were killed and 28 people injured by the strikes on Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in posts to social media.

Zelenskyy said that Russia launched more than 60 missiles at the capital.

The Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, an 11th-century cathedral located in the heart of the city, was among the sites damaged in the attack, Zelenskyy wrote.

The roof of the church was set on fire by strikes, he reported, though said that emergency responders extinguished the blaze. “This is one of the biggest Russian crimes against Christian culture to date,” the Ukrainian leader added.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha described the attack as “barbaric” in a post to X. He added that Russian President Vladimir Putin “has forever put his name on the list of history’s worst barbarians.”

In total, Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 70 missiles and 611 drones into Ukraine overnight, of which 50 missiles and 582 drones were shot down or otherwise suppressed. Twenty ballistic missiles and 27 drones impacted across 42 locations, the air force said in a post to Telegram.

Sunday night’s attack was the largest combined Russian strike recorded since the night of June 1, according to Ukrainian air force data analyzed by ABC News.

Zelenskyy said that at least five more people were killed and nine people injured by Russian strikes In the northeastern city of Kharkiv, while other attacks were also reported in the Kyiv, Dnipro, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy and Mykolaiv regions.

“Russia is showing the world its intentions to continue the war,” Zelenskyy wrote. “It is very important that there be a response from the G7 countries, which are currently gathering for a summit, and that it be decisive and meaningful: more pressure on the aggressor, more help for Ukraine with air defense, especially with anti-ballistic missiles.”

Russia’s Defense Ministry described the overnight attacks as “a massive strike with high-precision weapons” in a post to Telegram. The ministry claimed that its targets included “objects of the defense-industrial complex” and military facilities in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Dnipro.

The ministry denied responsibility for the strike on the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, claiming — without providing evidence — that the cathedral was hit by an interceptor missile fired by a Ukrainian-operated U.S.-made Patriot surface-to-air missile system.

The latest Russian attack came as leaders of the G7 — a grouping made up of the U.S., France, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan and the U.K. — prepared to gather for the bloc’s annual summit, which this year is being held in France.

Zelenskyy is expected to attend the event as a guest and meet with President Donald Trump and European leaders. While touring the damaged cathedral on Monday afternoon, the Ukrainian president said he invited Putin for talks at the summit. Moscow has not yet commented on the invitation.

The Russian Defense Ministry also claimed the shooting down of at least 123 long-range Ukrainian drones overnight into Monday morning.

Russia’s federal air transport agency, Rosaviatsiya, said in posts to Telegram that temporary flight restrictions were introduced at airports in Sochi, Volgograd, Kaluga, Yaroslavl and Nizhny Novgorod overnight.

Flight restrictions were also introduced at three of Moscow’s four international airports — Domodedovo, Ivanovo and Zhukovsky — amid the latest attacks, Rosaviatsiya said.

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said in a post to Telegram that four Ukrainian drones were shot down en route to the capital in the early hours of Monday, marking the eighth consecutive day of Ukrainian drone attacks targeting Moscow.

ABC News’ Victoria Beaule, Yulia Drozd and Anna Sergeeva contributed to this report.

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(QATAR) — Her room is made up of four towering gray walls. With a rug, a colorful comforter and a few pictures, 15-year-old Zahra Muheb has tried to make it feel like home. She’s spent her last two birthdays living at Camp As Sayliyah, a refugee camp on an unused American military base in Doha that’s a temporary home for more than 1,100 Afghan refugees. 

Most of its residents are women and children who were placed there by the U.S. State Department during the U.S. refugee resettlement process. 

Zahra told ABC News her dreams for the future have changed drastically since President Donald Trump signed an executive order halting refugee resettlement efforts during the first days of his second term. She said the ripple effects have been felt throughout every corner of the camp.

“I mean, when you go out of the camp and you’re sick, they take you to hospital and they put GPS trackers on you so that you cannot escape,” she said. “I feel like prison might be much better than here.” 

Zahra also told ABC News that she was threatened by the camp duty director and other camp officials after speaking to news outlets.

She claimed that they said someone in Washington, D.C., asked them to talk to her, then turned to her parents and said, “What you allow your daughter [to do] has significantly increased the risk of going back to Afghanistan.”

In response to Zahra’s specific claims, a State Department spokesperson told ABC News, “We have no information regarding this alleged incident” and that “accusations are dealt with promptly to protect residents.”

The fear of being sent back to Afghanistan is intense for many refugees at the base, she noted.

Zahra told ABC News camp officials are using that fear and not knowing where they will be placed against residents at the base.

“They are lying to people about [being sent to a] third country,” she said. “They are encouraging people to go back to Afghanistan, paying them money.”

Zahra’s family was already vetted by the Biden administration, but they and many other camp residents remain in limbo, waiting to see where and when the U.S. State Department will relocate them. 

In recent talks, the Trump administration said they were considering moving those residing at Camp As Sayliyah from Doha to the Democratic Republic of Congo — a country that’s now struggling to contain an Ebola outbreak — though that deal was scrapped.

“The State Department continues to work toward a positive resolution that provides safety for these remaining people to start a new life outside of Afghanistan while upholding the safety and security of the American people,” a department spokesperson told ABC News.

In response to the possibility of being sent to the DRC, Zahra said she wanted to address Trump directly, saying the idea was “not even acceptable.” 

“Mr. Donald Trump and Mrs. Melania reconsider [to] at least take us to America because we deserve safety. We deserve a life with dignity,” she told ABC News.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration raised the refugee ceiling by 10,000 solely for white South African refugees despite the promises the U.S. previously made to those residing at Camp As Sayliyah. 

On June 2, during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the State Department’s fiscal year 2027 budget, lawmakers pushed back against these new policies.

Democratic Sen. Van Hollen of Maryland told Republican Secretary of State Marco Rubio that “this administration has capped refugees at a record low” and that “White South Africans, Afrikaners, have comprised roughly 99% of those slots.” He called the administration’s process a “race-based refugee system.”

Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, denounced the notion of sending Afghan allies living at Camp As Sayliyah back to Afghanistan, which is controlled by the Taliban, or the DRC, which has seen a surge of sexual violence towards women and children in recent years amid the conflict that has raged since 2022.

In response, Rubio noted that the U.S. “can’t admit any Afghans at this point into the country,” due to an executive order in the wake of last November’s deadly attack on two members of the National Guard last November.

“I don’t know of any single country that’s going to take a thousand people, but we’ve talked to multiple countries about taking several hundred of these people and allowing them to move to a safe location,” he said.

The residents we spoke to told ABC News they feel left behind, including a father who served as a member of the Afghan Command Forces for the U.S. and asked ABC News not to use his name for fear of retaliation.

“In reality, we were brought here legally and we completed all legal processes,” he said. “We stood side by side with the United States in Afghanistan for almost 20 years. Now the time has come for the U.S. government to fulfill their promises.”

Shawn VanDiver, the president of AfghanEvac, a non-profit organization that advocates for Afghan refugees, arranged a call with residents, congressional staffers and politicians in April.

“We’re gonna keep fighting for you, there’s a lot of people in Congress that are gonna keep fighting for you,” he told the residents.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, joined the call to relay what his son, who served in Afghanistan as a Marine Corps infantry officer, told him about the Afghan allies “who put their lives on the line.”

“They love America. We will work for them and fight for them just as we would our own veterans,” he said.

In a previous statement, the U.S. State Department told ABC News in March that “Afghan Nationals at the Camp do not currently have a viable pathway to the United States” and that residents would be relocated by March 31. In June, ABC News spoke with several residents who still do not know where or when they will be relocated, if at all.

“There was a viable pathway, the administration has chosen to close it — it is a policy choice,” VanDiver told ABC News.

For now, residents at the camp hope the U.S. will keep its original promise to bring them to the country to start a new life.

Zahra asked ABC News to use her name, hoping it will help her resettlement efforts and others at the camp who are afraid of being sent to countries in conflict like DRC.

“I’m showing my face and I am raising my voice. To the camp officials from here … you cannot stop me,” she said. “Whatever you do, it won’t stop me. If you think that you can treat me [like this] and it will stop me, it cannot. I will fight. I will take those people to safety. I will try.”

On Thursday, 83 members of Congress signed a letter to Rubio, demanding a clear plan for residents at Camp As Sayliyah, shortly after Zahra’s story aired on ABC News on Tuesday. In the letter, congressional leaders gave the department until June 24 to respond with answers and a credible plan for refugees who have been living in limbo.

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(NEW YORK) — A U.S. citizen was arrested in China on espionage charges, according to Chinese officials.

U Min Zin was “lawfully subjected to criminal compulsory measures by the relevant authorities on suspicion of engaging in espionage activities that endanger China’s national security Chinese foreign ministry,” spokesperson Lin Jian told reporters Friday during a news conference.

Lin did not provide any more details about the charges or the investigation into Min Zin, who has been a longtime scholar on the politics of Myanmar. The spokesperson said the Chinese government notified the U.S. consulate general in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou.

A State Department official told ABC News in a statement Friday that the department is aware of the reports of the arrest.

“The Department of State has no higher priority than the safety and security of Americans. Whenever a U.S. citizen is detained, we work to provide the appropriate consular assistance. However, under federal privacy law, we are unable to comment further at this time,” the official said.

Min Zin took part in the democracy movement in Burma, Myanmar’s former name, in the late 80s and fled the country in 1989 to avoid arrest, according to a bio on his blog.

He is the executive director of the think tank, The Institute for Strategy and Policy (Myanmar), and has written several publications about Myanmar’s politics.

Min Zin was scheduled to speak at an event in Nepal this month hosted by the Centre for Social Innovation and Foreign Policy, the think tank announced in May.

ABC News’ Shannon Kingston contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — A police officer was shot and killed while executing a search warrant Thursday as part of an investigation into a series of shootings in Toronto, including one at the United States consulate in March, authorities said.

The officer, 43-year-old Marc Pinizzotto with the department’s emergency task force, was “shot in the line of duty while conducting a search warrant early this morning,” Toronto Police Service Chief Myron Demkiw said during a press briefing on Thursday.

Pinizzotto was provided emergency care and transported to a local hospital, where he died, the chief said.

Police did not share additional details on the circumstances of the shooting. A suspect is in custody and receiving emergency medical treatment in the hospital, according to Demkiw, who did not share further details on the individual.

The investigation involving the search warrant and several others executed on Thursday “concerned a number of shootings,” including one at the U.S. consulate in Toronto on March 10, Demkiw said.

Witnesses observed two people emerge from a white Honda CR-V and discharge a handgun at the consulate before driving away, according to police. No one was injured during the incident. Officers got a call about the shooting around 5:29 a.m., and found shell casings and damage to the building when they arrived, police said.

A 19-year-old suspect wanted in connection with the investigation remains at large, Demkiw said Thursday.

The police chief identified the suspect as Zara Jabbi and warned that he should be considered armed and dangerous.

“I urge you to turn yourself in,” Demkiw said while addressing the suspect during the briefing.

ABC News’ Othon Leyva contributed to this report.

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(BELFAST, Northern Ireland) — Extra officers from the U.K. are being deployed to Northern Ireland on Thursday following another night of violent unrest over an alleged knife attack by an immigrant suspect.

Scotland will send 90 officers to Northern Ireland to support an additional 200 officers from across the U.K. that were deployed to the region after protesters allegedly set fire to cars, properties and other outdoor objects, pelted cops with projectiles and harassed immigrant healthcare workers on Wednesday, according to investigators and local leaders.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said Thursday that 16 people have been arrested this week in connection with the back-to-back nightly protests in Belfast and other towns. They are looking for more suspects connected to the violent demonstrations.

Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson told reporters that 12 officers were injured during Wednesday night’s incidents, including some who were allegedly struck by Molotov cocktails and other projectiles.

Officers had to use a water cannon to disperse some of the crowds.

“Our communities in Northern Ireland deserve to get their lives back to normal. Yesterday, businesses shut their doors, trains were not running and we saw schools closing early due to fear. This is the impact these thugs are having,” he said.

As the destruction and chaos continued on the streets, the family of the victim of Monday’s stabbing attack at the center of the riots pleaded for calmness and tolerance.

The family of Stephen Ogilvie, who is in stable condition following the attack, released a statement Wednesday saying they were “feeling disgusted” by the images of the violent protests.

“We want to make it absolutely clear that to do this in response is not supported by our family, and peaceful protest is only ever the way forward,” the family said.

A Sudanese immigrant allegedly attacked Ogilvie with a knife around 10:30 p.m. Monday near Kinnaird Avenue before he was subdued by nearby pedestrians and arrested by the police.

The victim “suffered serious injuries to his eyes and slash-wound injuries to his back and face,” police said.

The 30-year-old suspect was charged with attempted murder, possession of an article with blade or point in a public place and threats to kill. The investigation is ongoing.

The protests that have broken out since the attack have been pushing anti-immigrant rhetoric and have caused disturbances across Northern Ireland, according to the police.

In one incident on Wednesday, 20 masked protesters allegedly blocked the road and threw projectiles at officers and in another incident in Portadown, demonstrators attacked a property for hours, according to PSNI.

During the demonstrations, some protesters allegedly harassed immigrant healthcare workers who were on their way to and from their work, according to police.

UNISON Northern Ireland, the union representing healthcare workers, said in a statement it had received reports this week of workers being followed, stopped by people to check their identities and intimidated in their homes.

“They are care workers, nurses, classroom assistants and a host of other occupations delivering key public services. They are here because our government and public services invited them to fill the critical shortages in these vital services. The hypocrisy of those behind the hate campaign is stunning,” UNISON said in a statement Wednesday.

Henderson said he was meeting with UNISON members on Thursday and also shared his support for the healthcare workers.

“They are the backbone of our public service. They are caring for our family, friends and loved ones in our communities. We are here to support them. In the same way they support us,” he said.

Ogilvie’s family also expressed support for Northern Ireland’s immigrants and healthcare workers.

“We have many migrants who make a deeply valuable contribution to our country, including from within our healthcare system and hospitality sector, and we depend on them to make our country work. We do not want this terrible tragedy to be used to divide people or fuel hostility — do not do this in the name of our loved one as we do not share the same values,” they said.

Outside of the unrest on the streets, police have also been working to combat a flood of misinformation about the knife attack and protests circulating on social media sites that are being promoted by anti-immigrant groups and figures.

Ogilvie’s family also condemned those who spread misinformation about the attack and protests.

“If you know anything at all about the attack, or saw anything strange near Kinnaird Avenue, please go to the police and stop sharing false information on social media, as it is deeply distressing,” they said.

Henderson urged the public to heed the family’s request.

“They could not be more clear that violence is not in Stephen’s name,” he said.

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(LONDON) — Ukrainian drones targeted Moscow again in the early hours of Thursday morning, according to the city’s Mayor Sergey Sobyanin, marking the fourth consecutive day of Ukrainian long-range attacks on the Russian capital.

Sobyanin said in posts to Telegram that at least 15 Ukrainian drones were intercepted en route to the capital overnight, with no damage or casualties reported. Emergency responders were dispatched to sites where drones crashed or debris fell, Sobyanin said.

Russia’s federal air transport agency, Rosaviatsiya, announced on Telegram that temporary flight restrictions were introduced at two of the capital’s four international airports — Vnukovo Airport to the southwest of Moscow and Zhukovsky Airport to the southeast of the city.

The drones targeting Moscow were among at least 330 Ukrainian drones reported to be shot down by Russia’s Defense Ministry on Wednesday night and into Thursday morning.

Rosaviatsiya said that flight restrictions were also introduced at airports in the cities of Sochi and Gelendzhik on Russia’s Black Sea coast, plus in the city of Krasnodar in southern Russia. All three cities are in the Krasnodar Krai region.

Regional Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev said in a post to Telegram that a “drone hazard” warning was in effect for the entire territory.

Drone debris, Kondratyev said, hit an apartment building in the city of Krasnodar resulting in a fire and injuring two people. Several homes in the district of Seversky, to the southeast of Krasnodar, were also damaged by a drone attack with one person injured, Kondratyev said.

But Andriy Kovalenko, the head of the Counter-Disinformation Center operating as part of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said on Telegram that a major oil refinery in the region was also targeted in the overnight attack.

The Afipsky Refinery, Kovalenko said, “has been damaged and a fire broke out on its premises.” The facility sits just south of Krasnodar and has already been attacked twice by Ukrainian drones — first in February 2025 and again in March 2026.

Russia continued its own long-range strikes into Ukraine overnight into Thursday morning. Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched two ballistic missiles and 221 drones in its latest barrage, of which 195 drones were intercepted or otherwise suppressed.

Both missiles and 21 drones impacted across nine locations, the air force said.

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(LONDON )– Russian air defenses shot down at least 22 Ukrainian drones heading toward Moscow overnight and into Wednesday morning, according to the city’s Mayor Sergey Sobyanin, marking the third consecutive day of Ukrainian long-range strikes on the Russian capital.

The latest attacks on Moscow were part of a large wave of Ukrainian drone strikes launched across southern and western Russia, according to the Defense Ministry in Moscow, which said in a post to Telegram that its forces downed at least 326 Ukrainian drones overnight.

Sobyanin said emergency services had been dispatched to sites where intercepted drones and debris fell. The mayor did not note any damage or casualties caused by any of the attacks reported since Monday. Since Monday, Sobyanin has reported the downing of at least 39 Ukrainian drones heading toward the capital.

It is unclear whether any drones penetrated Russian air defenses. Russian officials generally attribute any damage or casualties to debris from interceptions rather than successful impacts, even in cases when video footage shows Ukrainian munitions hitting targets.

Elsewhere, local officials reported attacks on industrial facilities in the Samara, Rostov, Vladimir and Cheboksary regions.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post to Telegram that a Ukrainian-designed FP-5 Flamingo cruise missile was used in the attack on Cheboksary. The strike hit “a military plant” used to produce “components for drones and missiles,” Zelenskyy added.

Zelenskyy said that Ukrainian munitions hit major oil refineries in Samara and Vladimir regions.

A drone alert was also declared in the Omsk region of Siberia — more than 1,800 miles from Ukraine — by Governor Vitaly Khotsenko, citing a warning from the Defense Ministry.

Russia’s federal air transport agency, Rosaviatsiya, announced temporary flight restrictions for at least 10 airports in southern and western Russia overnight into Wednesday morning, according to statements posted on its official Telegram channel.

The restrictions affected airports stretching from Sochi on the Black Sea coast to Perm, close to the Ural Mountains and more than 900 miles away from Ukraine.

Ukraine has been rapidly expanding its drone campaign against Russia — which officials in Kyiv refer to as “long-range sanctions” — in recent months, according to data published by Ukrainian officials and by the Russian Defense Ministry.

May saw the Russian Defense Ministry claim the shooting down of 9,418 Ukrainian drones — the highest monthly total ever reported by the ministry. And in Moscow, Sobyanin reported the shooting down of at least 329 Ukrainian drones heading toward the Russian capital the same month — just short of the record monthly high of 398 claimed interceptions in March.

Zelenskyy has been clear in his goal to expand Kyiv’s strikes deep inside Russia, targeting energy facilities, military factories and other strategic targets. 
“Our long-range impact on Russian logistics, Russian oil refining and Russian military production is also significant,” Zelenskyy said while visiting Estonia on Tuesday. “The Russian budget is in tatters. We must keep up the pressure and bring Russia back onto the diplomatic track,” he added.

Russia continued its own long-range strike campaign into Ukraine overnight into Wednesday. Ukraine’s air force said in a post to Telegram that Russia launched 207 drones into the country in its latest barrage, of which 181 were intercepted or otherwise suppressed.

ABC News cannot independently verify the data released by either Russia or Ukraine. It is possible that both sides may seek to exaggerate the effectiveness of their air defenses, or to amplify the attacks against them as proof that their enemies are not interested in pursuing a peace deal, experts have suggested.

Moscow publishes only the number of Ukrainian drones and other projectiles it claims to have intercepted.

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(LONDON) — Three people were killed overnight as Russia continued its aerial barrage of Ukraine, firing at least 166 drones, Ukrainian officials said, as Russian officials also claimed a Ukrainian attack targeting Moscow and other regions.

“At least three people were killed, including a pregnant 22-year-old woman, in Chuhuiv, as a result of Russia’s overnight terrorist attacks on Kharkiv and its region,” Andrii Sybiha, the Ukrainian foreign minister, said on social media.

The Ukrainian air force said at least 146 Russian drones had been destroyed.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said in a series of posts on Telegram on Tuesday morning that at least 11 drones had been destroyed by Russian air defenses near the capital. Emergency services were working at the sites where each crashed, he said.

Russia’s defenses intercepted and destroyed overnight at least 140 Ukrainian drones in several regions, Russia’s Defense Ministry said, according to the state-affiliated Tass news service.

The overnight attacks came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy again said Kyiv was seeking to open a diplomatic path to end Russia’s war.

Zelenskyy told The Guardian in an interview published on Tuesday that Roman Abramovich, a prominent Russian businessman with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, had visited Kyiv in May.

“I told this businessman, who came to deliver the message about a potential framework of diplomatic negotiations, that we were ready to speak from the very beginning,” Zelenskyy said on social media on Tuesday, recounting what he had told The Guardian. “We didn’t want this war, and we want to stop it.”

Zelenskyy’s office last week published an open letter to Putin in which he asked for a meeting, saying, “The front line today is the line from which diplomacy must begin.”

The Ukrainian president said many Russians were “becoming less comfortable” with the effects of the war on daily life, the economy and international relations.

“You will not have enough money or political capital to keep buying the loyalty of Russians the way you have for the past 26 years,” Zelenskyy told Putin in the letter. “And we will do everything we can to ensure that the world helps bring that moment closer.”

Putin last week again said he believed there was “a desire to end this military conflict peacefully” but stopped short of saying he would meet with his Ukrainian counterpart, according to a transcript released by the Russian president’s office.

The overnight strike targeting Ukraine’s Kharkiv region injured at least 15 people and damaged residential buildings, along with a church and other civilian infrastructure, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

Russia also targeted emergency responders in the Dnipro region, the ministry said.

“After firefighters had extinguished a blaze caused by an earlier strike, their vehicle came under another Russian attack while returning to base,” the ministry said. “Fortunately, no one was injured.”

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(NEW YORK) — A 6.1-magnitude earthquake was recorded in the Gulf, about 118 kilometers west-northwest of Cuba.

The National Weather Service in Miami said the shaking — which was initially reported as a 6.4-magnitude quake — was felt across much of Florida.

There’s no tsunami danger for the United States, the NWS said.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(NEW YORK) — International rescuers have indefinitely suspended the search for two gold miners believed trapped in a cave in Laos, nearly three weeks after they were reported missing with five others who were rescued, officials said.

International dive teams that converged on the country’s Xaisomboun province, where monsoon flood waters trapped the miners last month, were heading back home on Sunday, a search coordinator told ABC News.

The cave system, according to the coordinator, has become too unstable to safely carry on with the search. The rescue coordinator said the hope of finding the two remaining miners is now very low.

While water in the flooded subterranean labyrinth has been pumped out and lowered to a manageable level, the coordinator said the entrance to the cave has become too unstable for rescuers to safely proceed with the operation.

A local rescue team will keep pumping water from the cave in hopes of a miracle, the coordinator said.

The operation was halted after rescuers explored a newly discovered 196-foot-deep shaft they had hoped would lead them to a chamber where they suspected the two miners might be. But no sign of the miners was reported.

A group of seven illegal gold miners entered the cave on May 19 and became trapped when monsoon rains flooded the cave’s entrance, rescuers said.

The rescue team was able to pump enough water out of the system for four miners to crawl out of the muddy abyss on May 30, authorities said. A day earlier, a fifth miner was able to crawl and swim out of the cave after he was taught how to scuba dive, rescuers said.

In an interview with ABC News last week, Josh Richards, an Australian diver who was part of the rescue operation, said the two remaining missing miners could be in a sixth chamber, past the one where the five other miners were located.

But Richards said some of the rescued miners told officials that there were only six of them trapped in the cave, including one who managed to extract himself at the outset of the emergency and alert authorities.

Richards said that one possible theory is that eight miners entered the cave and three got out on their own and went into hiding because their mining activities are illegal in Laos and subject to prosecution.

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